For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. (Psalms 18:29)

Understand the difference between confidence in yourself and confidence about yourself. You can have a low confidence in yourself, but a high confidence about yourself. Christians have been deceived by faithless teaching, so that they think it is humility to have a low opinion and low confidence about yourself. But this is false humility. In fact, it is arrogance and self-centeredness, because this attitude rejects the blood of Christ and the gospel.

You can have a low confidence in yourself, but have a high confidence about yourself, if there is someone else you can trust in to believe that good things about you will happen. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, you can think good thoughts about yourself, because God says good things about you. When you have a low confidence in yourself, you open yourself up to the highest confidence about yourself, because you will turn to what God says about you and what God can do in you and through you.

Suppose a wealthy man tells you, “Choose any house you want, and I will buy it for you.” Now you can say, “I can buy any house I want. Any house I choose, I will get it.” Because you have the man’s promise and support, now you have confidence about yourself, not confidence in yourself. Confidence in yourself has become irrelevant. You are confident about what house you can buy. You have certainty about the outcome. This is not because you can afford it, but because he can afford it. It is not because you are confident in your wealth, but because you are confident in his wealth.

The moment you accept the rich man’s offer, your own level of wealth becomes irrelevant. It would not be humility to insist, “I cannot buy any house I want. I have limitations.” It would be a lie to say this. It would show that you are not living in reality. It would show a contempt for the benefactor’s wealth and integrity. If you have no confidence about yourself in buying the house you want, then you have no confidence in that man’s wealth or integrity. Faith is reality. When you walk by faith, you live in the reality of God.

Once you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you have confidence about yourself that God will accept you into heaven. You are certain that heaven is your home. This is not because you have confidence in yourself. You do not think that you are accepted because of your own goodness or ability or status. Rather, you have confidence about yourself — about whether God accepts you — because of Christ. You have confidence in Christ, so that you have confidence about yourself. Because of what Christ does for those who follow him, confidence in Christ inevitably leads to confidence about yourself. In fact, this confidence about yourself is as strong or as weak as your confidence in Christ. And if there is no confidence about yourself, it is evidence that there is no confidence in Christ.

Let us make the same point from another perspective. You can have confidence in the ministry of healing the sick. When a sick person comes to you for help, you can have confidence about his situation. You have confidence that he will receive healing. This is not because you have confidence in yourself to heal the sick, and it is not because you have confidence in that person’s ability to recover, but you have confidence about his healing because you have confidence in God to perform a miracle. You do not have confidence in yourself or in the other person. You have confidence in God, and this leads to confidence about this man who needs healing.

When you grasp the distinction between confidence in yourself and confidence about yourself, you are able to have confidence about yourself in every situation, because you now place your confidence in God alone. He is able to solve every problem, work any miracle, and answer your prayers. Faith in God, therefore, is incompatible with doubts and fears about yourself. It is incompatible with doubts and fears about your abilities, your future, your status, your righteousness, or anything about yourself. When you have faith in God, you walk in the reality of God. You judge all things by the word of God, the righteousness of God, and the ability of God.